New world for police chief

When Chief Superintendent William Morrell stepped off a plane in the Solomon Islands, he was greeted by a dozen screaming, bare-chested tribesmen bearing clubs and axes.

Then the 48-year-old Londoner was garlanded with flowers and hoisted on the warriors' shoulders to be carried across the tarmac to the terminal.

Mr Morrell was there to take the post of police commissioner of the blighted tropical islands, a former British protectorate once known as the Happy Isles but now racked by insurrection and violence.

By the end of this month, Mr Morrell will be raised to even greater stature when he takes charge of a 2,000-strong, Australian-dominated police and military intervention force, which was invited in this week by the South Pacific state's desperate government, with near-total public support.

He might be tempted to prepare his own special welcome for the peacekeepers, for after only two weeks in his job, fears for his life surfaced when one of his predecessors was murdered.");document.write("

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Sir Fred Soaki was killed on the eve of an operation to deal with militants terrorising the government. The suspected killer, a police officer, was arrested but escaped from jail.

The murder was intended either as a warning to the new police chief to leave, or to prevent Sir Fred spilling the beans on rogue officers who played a role in a 2000 coup that triggered the breakdown of law and order.

"The first few months were extremely stressful and worrying for my personal safety," Mr Morrell said. "Even the good guys in the force didn't want to speak to me, they were so afraid."